Bulb pliers



Oct. 27, 1964 w. 'r. MADEIRA BULB PLIERS Filed April 30, 1983 INVENTOR M'i/iamfiadare/Efizira,

- A TTOR/VEYS.

United States Patent 3,153,957 BULB PLIERS William T. Madeira, Lancaster, Pa., assignor to K-D Manufacturing Company, Lancaster, Pa., a company of Pennsylvania Filed Apr. 30, 1963, Ser. No. 276,767 9 Claims. (Cl. 815.1)

This invention relates to hand pliers and, in particular, to pliers which are adapted to grip and remove the base of a broken light bulb from an electrical socket, especially in those cases where there is only restricted access to the bulb.

In removing a small diameter light bulb, such as an automobile stop light bulb, which has been in long use and has become corroded in the socket, the glass bulb frequently breaks upon application of a turning force necessary to free the bulb from the corrosion in the socket. It then becomes more difficult to grip the small bulb base protruding only a short distance from the socket. The removal is also hampered as broken and jagged glass edges often protrude from the bulb base. In addition, as the small light bulbs are often located in restricted access mountings, ordinary removal by hand or by ordinary pliers is not possible or presents the possibility of cut fingers.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide hand pliers which are adapted to fit into a relatively small access location and grip the base of a broken light bulb.

It is another object of this invention to provide bulb removing pliers which will grip the corroded bulb base with suflicient strength for turning and yet without crushing the bulb base.

It is another object of this invention to provide in bulb gripping pliers, a gripping structure having an inner mounted serrated edge so that irregularities in the metal or glass along the outer edge of the bulb base can be gripped by the serrated edge providing additional means for rotating the bulb.

These and other objects of this invention together with attendant advantages will become more apparent from the description hereinbelow and from the attached drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation showing a specific form of the pliers of this invention operatively gripping the base of a broken bulb; A

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the lines and arrows IIII of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the lines and arrows III-III of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view showing the bulb gripping structure of this form of the invention in greater detail.

Although a preferred form of this invention is described herein with the use of technical words, it should be understood that such words are not intended to limit the structure described and that other forms and equivalent apparatus can be substituted therefor.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, one specific form of pliers having the features of this invention is designated generally by the numeral 10. The pliers consist of a pair of lever arms 20 and 30 which are pivotally joined by a rivet or bolt 40 adjacent one end of the arms thereby dividing each arm into a long portion 20a, 30a and short portion 20b, 30b. The lever arms are preferably formed from a metal such as aluminum or steel.

Mounted upon and extending beyond the ends of the longer portions 20a, 30a of both lever arms 20, 30 are a pair of hand gripping handles 22, 32 having a series of perforations 24, 34, respectively, for increasing friction between the handles and a users hand as indicated in FIG.

3,153,957 Patented Oct. 27, 1964 l. The handles 22, 32 are substantially U-shape with one end mounted over the ends of the lever arms and held thereon by four rivets 25. The lever arms 20, 30 can be curved as shown in FIG. 1 or otherwise shaped so as to increase the lever power delivered to the short portions of the arms by a squeezing force exerted on the bandles 22, 32.

Mounted upon each of the shorter portions 20b, 30b of the lever arms is a bulb gripping jaw structure generally designated by the numerals 26 and 36, respectively. Each gripping jaw 26, 36 consists of two contiguous arcuate flanges, outer gripping flanges 28, 38 and inner gripping flanges 29, 39. In FIG. 1, the inner gripping flanges 29, 39 are indicated in broken lines while the outer gripping flanges 28, 38 are shown in full lines. The base portions 28a, 38a and 29a and 39a of each flange 28, 38 and 29, 39, respectively, extend downward in FIG. 1, become twisted and, at the point at which they are mounted on the short portions 20b, 30b of the lever arms, said four flange base portions are located in a plane substantially perpendicular to their respective arcuate flanges or, more precisely, are perpendicular to a tangent drawn to the mid point of the arc of each flange. As shown in FIG. 1, the base portion 28a of the outer flange 29 and portion 39a of the inner flange 39 are shown. A pair of rivets 42 hold a pair of flange base portions to each lever arm with the end of each lever arm being indicated by broken lines. A pair of indentations 62 are formed in each outer flange 28, 38 which extend into a pair of recesses 60 formed in the arcuate surface of each inner flanges 29, 39 as shown in FIG. 2. The gripping jaws are preferably of a strong metal and can be heat treated for long service.

An ordinary electric socket 56 of the threaded variety is shown in FIG. 1 having a threaded light bulb base 50 positioned therein. The bayonet type bulb and socket which is often used in place of a threaded socket and bulb in automobiles can be removed by the pliers of this invention as efliciently as the threaded variety. Protruding from the base edge 51 of the bulb base 50 is an edge of glass 52 which is the remains of the broken glass bulb. It is seen in FIG. 1 that the outer flanges 28, 38 of each gripping structure 26, 36 fit around the circumferential surface of the bulb base while only the leading or forward edge 29b, 39b of each inner flange 29, 39, respectively, comes in contact with the outer edge 51 and glass 52 of the bulb base.

Referring now to FlG. 2, the centrally located glass base 58 supporting a plurality of filaments 59 is indicated and surrounded by a glass ring and edge 52. It should be understood that customarily the glass extends up the inner surface of the metallic base 50 and then extends outward over the base edge 51. In FIG. 2, the glass is shown only on the interior of the base 50.

Outer flanges 28, 38 are shown gripping the bulb base 50 while inner flanges 29, 39 face and grip the edge 51 of the base and along the edge 52 of the glass. The indentations 62 are shown in position in recesses 60. The bulb socket 56 is shown as the largest outside circle in FIG. 2.

Referring now to FIG. 3, which shows the gripping structure taken along a longitudinal section, the inner flange 39 is shown with a series of serrations 39b extending along its entire leading edge. It is understood that both inner flanges 29 and 39 have the series of serrations and, as shown in FIG. 3, these serrations grip and cut into the glass and edge of the bulb base. Each pair of flanges can be spot welded together or otherwise joined and, as shown in FIG. 3, the flange base portion 39:: and flange base portion 38a of flange 38 are mounted on opposing sides of lever arm 30 and held by rivet 42.

Referring now to FIG. 4, the serrated inner flanges 29, 39 are shown indented from the leading edges of the outer flanges 28, 38 providing an arcuate gripping surface 281) 3- M and 38b in eaeh flange wh tions of each lever arrn entends beyond the ends of said the bulb base. the length oi this surtaee an VHS 5E portwnsfth'bhter arena t fianges arranged to form an incomplete circumferential surface when the pliers are held in operative engagement with a bulb base.

3. The pliers as defined; in 1-aim 2 wherein the two flanges forming each;:;grib'p' eans are joined together lon t ir Q er es-su i a- 4:. -;';1?he.:p11ers:a's definednn 91am; two fianesf9rming each gripping means 12%: tion extending cording to the size of the bull) to be removed but, in gen- .the yria ista b twee? hgremzeahsofsthe laser pbrdicular to dja- . I, e hand grl mes 1n tact withnthe sideswof therbulb base andrthe,serrated;.e e' 7 he ,V r

I A defined iniclaitn 7 whereinftheignippings es rare:: heatufempeieilmtofiincfieasefitheir "tructhral strength. 

1. IN PLIERS FOR REMOVING THE BASE OF A BROKEN LIGHT BULB FROM A SOCKET, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING A PAIR OF LEVER ARMS PIVOTALLY JOINED ADJACENT ONE END OF THE ARMS DIVIDING EACH ARM INTO A LONG AND SHORT PORTION, HAND GRIPPING MEANS LOCATED AT THE LONG PORTION OF EACH ARM AND BULB GRIPPING MEANS MOUNTED OPPOSINGLY AT THE ENDS OF THE SHORT PORTION OF EACH ARM, EACH OF SAID BULB GRIPPING MEANS HAVING AN OUTER ARCUATE GRIPPING FLANGE AND AN INNER ARCUATE GRIPPING FLANGE MOUNTED CONTIGUOUS THERETO, SAID OUTER FLANGE EXTENDING BEYOND THE INNER FLANGE AND SAID INNER FLANGE HAVING SERRATIONS LOCATED ALONG ITS OUTER LEADING EDGE WHEREBY UPON OPERATIVE ENGAGEMENT OF THE BASE OF A BROKEN BULB BY THE BULB GRIPPING MEANS OF THE PLIERS AND SQUEEZING OF THE HAND GRIPPING MEANS, THE OUTER FLANGE COMES INTO CONTACT AROUND THE CIRCUMFERENTIAL SURFACE OF THE BULB BASE AND THE SERRATED EDGE OF THE INNER FLANGE COMES INTO CONTACT WITH THE OUTER EDGE OF THE BULB BASE, THE COMBINATION OF SAID FRICTIONAL CONTACTS CAUSING THE BULB BASE TO ROTATE OUT OF THE SOCKET AS THE PLIERS ARE TURNED. 